#143 - Steel Exploratory Lion's Share Victory

[Airborne Ranger]

Canticar (AN)

Congratulations to everyone who lasted until the end of this marathon!

I hope that next time I can lure Jumping Fist to the winning team

I have a question for Cloud, the WA..... early in the game the RA/BL/SO coalition attacked you in Amberland, then things went quiet for a while.  After a while you started to attack the coalition that was fighting the RA/BL/SO.  I am not judging, but I dont understand.  Would you mind explaining what took place?

I also have a question for the RA/BL/SO/WA/EL.  You started to destroy pop centers around the time that the RA quite the game.  From my perspective this made it very easy for me to hold onto Torvale.  Would you mind explaining your thought process?

It was fun and challenging but I hope I am not involved in another game that lasts 40 turns.

Thanks All!

To UN great game, I do not think anyone is challenging your victory, it was a fair and square win within rules of the game. As I told you in earlier posts you were a pain in the butt to all with those agents. AN and RD same to you, great fun game. GI also, stayed in for long time when others would quit. To those I worked with, never had better allies or friends in game!

If I would have known the VC conditions better (my fault) I would not have wasted 20 plus turns trying to destroy you (UN) and your pc's as it did me no good. I guess I should have just recruited emmys/agents and kept replacing those lost and sat back and watched. But then it would have been boring game for me. So no regrets here.

To answer AN question, I think it was to destroy UN agents hiding in pop centers but I am not sure as I was busy in Runnimede and SS region. I will let them give you better answers.

BL

[Cloud]

I have a question for Cloud, the WA..... early in the game the RA/BL/SO coalition attacked you in Amberland, then things went quiet for a while.  After a while you started to attack the coalition that was fighting the RA/BL/SO.  I am not judging, but I dont understand.  Would you mind explaining what took place?

I also have a question for the RA/BL/SO/WA/EL.  You started to destroy pop centers around the time that the RA quite the game.  From my perspective this made it very easy for me to hold onto Torvale.  Would you mind explaining your thought process?

To truly answer your questions basically requires a full write-up.  So here goes.

Part 1 - Wait Wait, Don't Kill Me

At the start of the game, Jumpingfist (EL) and I decided to ally.  It's so far back now.  He and I have joined forces in two Cycle of Magic games since this game started, but it was a first at the time.  We had previously either been at each others' throats or at least serious rivals.  We also decided to bring in the TR, a new/returning player who could use some guidance and could serve as a third alliance member should the need arise.  When this game started, the GI player challenged the RD player and I wanted no part in that, so I kept traditional GI coordination at a minimum.  Region sharing info only.  I offered my starting Synisvanian town to the RA and then the SO after RA refused to pay the price I asked and rubbed me the wrong way in our discussions.  Finally, RA came back and made a counter offer and told me I had no choice but to take it.  I have a bit of a defiant streak in my playstyle and didn't care for that so I refused.  Meanwhile, I was having a decent go of it - I got the Ring of Spells and was on my way to getting something going.  On turn 6, the RA/SO/BL alliance launched an attack on me, killing a couple of wizards and taking my Ring and soon my game was all but ruined.  There was briefly talk of the three of us striking back but the TR also started getting attacked and there was precious little I could do about it so I don't blame him for throwing in with the group who attacked me.  They could at least help.  I pretty much resigned myself to being a thorn in the side of RA/SO/BL from then on and doing whatever I could to help EL. 

Part 2 - This Amber Life

So I restricted my activities to Amberland, playing whack-a-mole with RA/SO/BL forces and just generally doing anything I could do to be a fly in their ointment.  They soon attacked the GI as well, and Amberland was a mess.  I managed to get my capitol moved to PK, one of the best spots on the map, and even was able (with help from EL) to get the Ring of Power.  Still, it was rough going.  They never let up and I was constantly on the run, slowly bleeding resources - agents, emmies, whatever - in the process.  During this time period, the DW arrived in one of my PCs and sent an email saying that the RD told him I was out of the game and was that true and can he just take this PC?  Yes.  I'm still here.  No, don't take my PCs.  I gathered what was left me and prepared to move into Synisvania or Southern Sands and start tearing things up.  The EL and I hatched a scheme in which I would get my village in Arcania back from the DE and we would use it to launch an attack - ultimately the plan was to attack Synisvania.  I even went so far as to teleport into the region, one turn away from launching the monkey-wrench offensive.  It was at this point that Jumpingfist wrote me and told me that he was considering making a deal with the devil because the other faction (RD/AN/UN) seemed to be galloping toward victory.  It was hard for me to set aside whatever resentment I had toward the RA/SO/BL alliance, but I had decided to support my ally to the best of my ability and so that's what I did.  And, just like that, I was allied with them.

Part 3 - War Talk

It was instantly clear that I was at the kids' table within this new alliance.  They would send out alliance emails that JF had to forward to me or add me to the recipient list.  RA would say things like 'the four of us' when talking about the alliance.  RA told me if I wanted Amberland, I could take what the GI or the RD had.  BL was comparatively generous and allowed me to take a few PCs he had in the region, but I wasn't to take Avalon until after the AN took it.  After some time, I was able to gain control of the region for a minute.  EL was giving me gold to raise my wizards and I was finally able to do what was being asked of me - Destroy the UN village capitol.  I did that and then all Hell broke loose.  RD and AN attacked me, agents targeted my King and every Regent that came after until I literally had no more emmies left.  Neither EL nor I had any leveled agents left so I was dependent on my other allies for any protection I might get, none of which arrived despite requests.  All I had was wizards - 5 of them.  For a dozen or more turns, they stayed in two patrols, constantly shifting the name of the group, constantly teleporting around the board.  Coordination was not good.  There was constant bickering between DE and RA about RA involvement in DE's war with DW.  RA figured DW was with RD/AN/UN and the sooner he could help put away DW, the faster DE could help the larger effort.  DE considered his war with DW an isolated one-on-one and wanted no help.  On one occasion, RA told me a village to destroy and it happened to contain a BL emmy or agent (I forget) that got killed and I was read the riot act over it.  Later, RA told me RD village targets in Northern Mists and I would have destroyed them but I just happened to recon a few before pulling the trigger and found that DA had taken them.  DA was supposed to be in our faction! 

Part 4 - Morning Destruction

Though I did other things like Infuriate RD in Northern Mists, cast Curses,  and Summon Death against the RD to help aid in the defense of Oakendell, most of my time after the fall of Amberland was spent destroying villages and towns.  Usually I was responding to destruction requests either to target agents or emmisaries or to affect the balance of control in a region, whatever.  But I stopped soliciting requests after a while and would just target whatever RD or AN PC's I knew about.  Always being certain to keep on the move and just ahead of the assassin's blade.  My favorite moment was helping defend Oakendell because that was in service to my actual ally.  But if there didn't seem much rhyme or reason to my actions at that point, it was because unless I had a specific request, I was just wildin' out.  I ended the game with 2 P7s, a P6, and 2 P5s along with the Ring of Power.  No emmies, one town and one village, and 3 lvl 1 agents.  My Inf was 8 for the last third of the game, and there were 17 names on my In Memorium list, including 3 Regents.  I'd have to go back and count up all the PCs I destroyed but it was a fair number, I'd guess.  I'd like to heartily congratulate all the podium players - in my eyes, there is nothing questionable about your accomplishments, and it was a good game. 

Infamous - unclemike (RA) for evilness
Chancellor - Vball (RD) for running the winning coalition
Iron-Willed - Hamlet (GI) for sticking around and keeping everyone guessing

[Lord Thanatos]

Would someone please post the final status points.  My game turn result omitted them.  I have no idea what the status point totals were.  Where did I finish?  Last? 12th? What?

[Jumpingfist]

Would someone please post the final status points.  My game turn result omitted them.  I have no idea what the status point totals were.  Where did I finish?  Last? 12th? What?

Same for me I only know 1st - 4th from the forum.

[unclemike]

[quote pid='25281' dateline='1418176802']
Infamous - unclemike (RA) for evilness
Chancellor - Vball (RD) for running the winning coalition
Iron-Willed - Hamlet (GI) for sticking around and keeping everyone guessing

[/quote]


So I'm evil now
 
I can understand why the WA is angry with me, I nearly took him out of the game early on so he's upset about it.
 
The problem that I had with game 143 was that I made too many NAP's. The SO and I agreed to work together but I also made agreements with the BL-DA since they were friendly in their emails. Since my RA forces had nowhere to go early on, I consolidated my position, waited for the SO to form a group that was strong enough to attack something, and searched for artifacts with a bunch of agents (so yes, I did use my agents for a variety of missions and not just for the status points).
 
Anyway, the SO needed more gold production so he took the WA town in Synisvania and we started to develop a plan to wipe out the WA in region 5. The BL wanted to join at that point and the three of us worked together to take over Amberland.
 
We had a decent plan and had the WA down to just a couple of pc's (and knocked the GI down at the same time) when the TR asked the BL for help against the AN-GN-RD-UN alliance. So the BL left to help pull attention away from the TR since his dragons could fly around Runnimede causing havoc. All of us thought the AN-GN-RD-UN were going to win the game because they formed a four kingdom alliance early on (really unfair in an individual game) so the rest of us loosely formed an alliance to prevent that from happening. I wasn't sure of the GI since he was helping the AN but not the RD.
 
At that time, the GI moved on the offensive and arrived in Synisvania in what seemed like a single turn. I forgot how far the GI troops can move and my RA forces were behind to catch him. So I pulled my forces away from Amberland and went back to region 9 to fight him. We left the WA alive with just a few pc's in 5 and decided that he wasn't worth our time anymore with the GI being the greater threat in our regions. If the GI didn't move when he did, the WA would have been out of the game rather than allowed to linger on.
 
I was able to catch the GI before he did any major damage and we fought at my capital. My RA group was around 135k strong vs a GI group about a fourth my size. Thought it would be an easy victory but his GI troops went on the defensive and survived my attack. After some messages back and forth, I offered the GI a truce if he left Synisvania/Southern Sands and moved back to Amberland or Northern Mists (WI just dropped) which he did.
 
At that point, the BL was getting hammered by the UN so I used my agents and divines to track down the UN agents the best I could. When I found one, I suggested that we destroyed the pc since that is really the best way to take out a 19th level agent. So we started destroying anything that we found an UN agent.
 
That approach worked for the most part but was slow going. The DE was busy against the DW so I offered my troops to help him against the DW in order to free the DE to counter the AN. But the DE only wanted me to hit a few pc's in region 3 which really wasn't that useful and it allowed the DW to linger on in the game.
 
So I moved my group thru Amberland and into Torvale to pull the AN away from the BL (and now EL). My divines and agents were still trying to track down UN agents and the SO/WA wizards were busy casting domes against the massive RD force in Oakendell. The RD must have had a 200k strong group which was beyond any of us to fight until the RD made the mistake in splitting up his forces. Then the EL was able to fight the smaller RD groups and did well with Dragon Slayer combined with his 50% combat bonus in the forest.
 
After that, the RD wasn't an unbeatable threat anymore and our efforts against the UN were starting to take their toll. Late in the game, I found the Stone of All Minds and decided to develop my wizards. Normally, the RA has a max wizard level of 6 but with the stone, I developed one 8th level and five 7's. That allowed me to cast my own dome spells as well as curse, scandal, and destroy pc's which were fun. Also tried to summon a demon vs AN consuls but they survived. Having higher level wizards than the AN allowed me to kill his leaders/wizards with ease and was able to knock him down as well.
 
During the last few turns, the RD tried to move into Synivania but my domes prevented him from doing anything and he lost all of his warlords (3 or 4 I think - ouch) and his last wizard with my kill spells. Anyway, I would have to say I had lots of fun with those wizards.
 
As for status points, I wish Cipher had some time to fix the problem to display itemized status points every time they're calculated. It really makes a difference and would make Valhalla a worthwhile effort. And as I mentioned earlier, I do feel that declaring a foe your ally towards the end of the game is unsportsmanlike conduct.

It's one thing for a player to develop their own agents, wizards, warlords, influence, ...etc. to help themselves in their standings but when you declare a friend an enemy (+400 pts) or a foe an ally (-400 pts), it's really a cheap shot and I was surprised that the AN-DW-RD-UN did that on the last turn.
 
If Ry Vor says so, I could have the code prevent such from happening again. Such as when the Five-Player-Rule goes in effect (only two turns left), I could put the restriction that no one is allowed to change their enemy/ally declarations. That way, players won't affect others negatively especially when the contest is close as with the BL's point total...

[VballMichael]

So funny how you rewrite history. Your alliance started on Turn 1. The RD helped the UN and GN against a TR invasion, then later joined AN after your alliance attacked. Your "team" was attacking as a group on the WA and GI by turn 6. So leave words like "unfair" out of your posts as you personally formed the first multi-player alliance.

[Lord Thanatos]

Would someone please post the final status points.  My game turn result omitted them.  I have no idea what the status point totals were.  Where did I finish?  Last? 12th? What?

Same for me I only know 1st - 4th from the forum.

will someone please post the final status points?

[VballMichael]

Would someone please post the final status points.  My game turn result omitted them.  I have no idea what the status point totals were.  Where did I finish?  Last? 12th? What?

Same for me I only know 1st - 4th from the forum.

will someone please post the final status points?

sorry, not on my turn either. maybe only in the turns of the three podium folks? Or maybe LD can do his magic with the Valhalla report....

[mafmiller]

Congratulations to all the podiumists!!! (DW)
I was disappointed that I was going to be playing the DW, so in the beginning I decided my role would be to support the WI. He was new to the game and I usually do much better at support than taking the lead. Then, as you all know, he dropped! Ugh! What was I going to do now?! I had expended a lot of resources in his favor instead of really developing my own position. Oh, well. The DW position was better than I had thought it would be and I did take my region fairly early, so I thought I'd just hang out in the Mountains for a while, stay to myself and build up. That was amusing for only so long. I was bored, so I needed an enemy. Well, Dwarves are good and Demons are evil, so why don't I attack them?   That was fun and went very well for a while. I didn't realize, however, that DE was part of an alliance, and eventually was attacked by three kingdoms ... although to be fair, the only serious attacks still only came from the DE. He was an excellent opponent and eventually wore me down ... curse those Princes!!! I guess it's understandable that some players considered me a part of a bigger alliance, but I really only cooperated with RD/UN/AN from time to time.
Good game.

[unclemike]

[quote pid='25288' dateline='1418194309']
will someone please post the final status points?

[/quote]


GAME END STATUS POINTS

PLACE KINGDOM PLAYER___ RESULTS-40 GRAND TOTAL

1_______UN____Daredevil________9960____18503

2_______RA____The Wise One_____7215____14382

3_______AN____Canticar_________3905____10584

4_______BL____Airborne Ranger___5200____10573

5_______DE____Lord Thanatos____4660_____8403

6_______EL____Jumpingfist_______4245_____8269

7_______RD____Vball Michael_____1000_____5995

8_______DW___Damelon_________1545_____4734

9_______DA____Bash Grimtooth___2000_____4409

10______SO____Drogo___________2400_____4100

11______WA____Cloud___________1000_____2650

12______GI_____Hamlet_________1000_____2274